Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall was the Democratic-Republican and Democratic political machine that controlled New York City politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. Tammany Hall gained control of politics by helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in politics, and the great majority of their district and precinct leaders were Irish Catholics after the 1850s. As millions of immigrants came to New York City, Tammany gained more support, coercing voters into voting multiple times and paying the machine's ward bosses, who functioned as de facto crime bosses in their constituencies. In 1919 and 1923, Tammany hero Al Smith became Governor of New York, and he also won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1928. From 1930 to 1945, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt fought against Tammany Hall, and Mayor Jimmy Walker was forced to resign in 1932 after bribery allegations were proved. In the 1950s, Tammany boss and American Mafia associate Carmine DeSapio briefly revived the machine before Eleanor Roosevelt and her allies again defeated it. By the mid-1960s, Tammany Hall ceased to exist.